Wood finishing process



Patented May 28, 1940 UNITED STATES moans WOOD FINISHING PROCESS Sam Maurer, Vancouver, British Columbia, I Canada, assignor to M and M Wood Working Company, Portland, Oregon reg., a corporation of No Drawing. Application December 1, 1937, Serial No. 177,653

6 Claims.

This invention relates to a new and improved method of graining wood and similar products.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of creating patterns or designs upon the a surface of wood and similarly used products representing the grain of wood, or representing in lay work or patterns or designs of a similar nature.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method of graining wood flooring, parquetry, panelling and the like to resemble wood of a different variety than the variety of wood from which the product is manufactured. A A further object of the invention is to provide a method of creating upon the surface of wood and similarly used products a pattern or design in imitation of the natural grain of hard close grained woods, which design shall be of a substantially permanent nature so that when used as flooring and the like, ordinary wear will not obliterate the created design.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method of creating patterns or designs upon the surface of wood and similarly used products by formingcuts or incisions in said surface and then sealing said surface and the surfaces-exposed by said cuts or incisions to prevent the absorption of moisture.

This application is a continuationin part of an application forUnited States Letters Patent No. 97,523, filed August 24, 1936,.for wood finishing processes. i

An early method of producing anartificial grain or pattern on the surface of soft woods embodied the provision of a cylinder having protuberances corresponding to the grain of the wood to be imitated, revolving the cylinder in contact with a color imparting apparatus, and thereafter passing said cylinder over the material to indent upon the surface thereof the design engraved upon the cylinder, thus causing the material to be indented and at the same time and by the same act stained or colored in the indentations. The method proved to be impractical, however, for thereas'on that the moisture imparted to the wood by the stain or coloring matter caused the natural grain of the wood to swell and obliterate the indented (Cl. fill-32) ing to it cuts or incisions in imitation of the grain of the variety of wood to be imitated, There.- upon a coating of mineral filler was applied to the surface-of the wood to fill the artificially produced crevices. 5

This method of graining soft woods proved ineffectual, however, for reasons chiefly as follows:

In the firstplaceit was impossible to form the cuts or incisions in, the surface of the wood with any degree of uniformity or evenness. When 10 the incising roll was pressed upon the wood under pressure sufiicient to cause the blades to penetrate the wood, the wood was more often crushed than incised, with the result that the intended pattern was not clear and sharp, nor were the incisions of such nature as to receive and hold the filler. In fact, where the wood was crushed, there were no sharply defined incisions in its surface. Moreover, the moisture content of the filler served to raise the natural grain of the wood to such extent as to destroy the effectiveness of the artificial grain imparted to the surface by the incisions.

In an effort to overcome the tendency of the incising rolls to crush the wood, a later method of treatment embodied the use of a plurailty of incising rolls, each roll serving to'incise only a portion of the desired pattern. This method has proved to be ineffectual for like reasons as before, and it has remained for applicant to discover a method ofincising a desired pattern in the surface of wood and similarly usedproducts which is practical and which will in fact produce the long sought for result.

The invention consists, essentially, of a new and improved method of finishing wood and similarly used products, including. the steps of incising the surface of the material with heated incising blades, and thereafter sealing the pores of the material to prevent the absorption of mois- 4 ture.

The incisions are made by passing the material in contact with any incising roller made up of a plurailty of steel discs having their peripheral edges sharpened to a thin V-shaped cutting edge. 45 Nothwithstanding these blades are razor sharp, it is necessary to press the incising roller upon the material with considerable pressure to cause the blades to penetrate its surface. For example, when the material being acted upon is 50 Douglas fir, each blade must be pressed against the surface of the wood under approximately 50 pounds pressure to cause the blade to enter the wood. In the machine illustrated in applicants copending application, Serial No. 96,396, filed August 17, 1936, entitled Wood incising machines, the incising roller is 48 inches in length, for incising panels up to 48 inches in width. The blades number 13 to the inch, and the pressure exerted upon the material at the point of contact with the roller is approximately 650 pounds per inch. When the wood to be treated is of a variety having hard fibers overlying softer fibers, as in fir, the soft fibers beneath the hard fibers which define the grain of the wood give away under such pressure, and the surface is crushed rather than incised.

Applicant has discovered that when the incising blades are heated to a temperature of from 500 to 700 F., the blades will penetrate the wood evenly and uniformly without any tendency tocrush the surface. The incising blades are not heated sufficiently to brand or burn the wood, and in this connection it is not intended to limit the application of the invention to any particular degree of heat, except that it shall be less than that sufiicient to cause the incising blades to burn or brand the material during momentary contact therewith.

After the material has been incised it is subjected to a bath of liquid sealer. Preferably, this is accomplished by submerging the material for a few seconds in a tank of sealer and then passing it between squeegee rolls for removing the excess liquid. In this manner the sealer is caused to seal the walls of the crevices formed by the incising blades, as well as the original surface of the material. It will be appreciated, of course, that the sealer can be applied with a brush in the usual manner, providing care is taken to cover all of the exposed surfaces. By thus sealing the pores of the wood, absorption of moisture is prevented, which otherwise would cause the natural grain of the wood to swell and rise, particularly where moisture is admitted through the cuts or incisions to the soft fibers of the wood which lie beneath the fibers which define the grain.

If the material is to be painted, paint is applied before the filler, since if the filler were applied first the paint would cover the filled cuts or incisions and the resulting product would not differ from any other painted product of like nature. The previous application of sealer prevents closing of the crevices by swelling of the wood, and these are not closed by the subsequent application of paint, but are open to receive the filler even after the product has been painted.

If desired, color may be applied to the cuts or incisions at the time the incisions are made, by applying ink or coloring matter to the edges of the incising blades and then passing the material under or in contact therewith. Such procedure may be preferable when it is intended that the material be finished by staining and/or varnishing, in which event it is unnecessary that a filler be applied to fill the crevices.

Having now described my invention and in What manner the same may be used, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. The process of treating a surface to create a desired pattern, consisting of providing an incising roller so constructed and arranged for rotatably engaging a surface for incising a pattern thereupon, heating said incising roller, thereafter pressing said roller upon said surface to form cuts or incisions in said surface, and thereafter sealing said surface and the walls of the incisions created by the incising roller to prevent absorption of moisture thereby but without filing or closing said incisions.

2. The process of finishing wood and similarly used products, comprising the steps of passing the material in engagement with heated incising blades to form cuts or incisions in the surface thereof according to a desired pattern, and thereafter sealing said surface and the walls of the incisions created by the incising blades to prevent absorption of moisture thereby.

3. The method of creating patterns or designs upon the surface of wood and similarly used products, consisting of providing an incising roller comprising a plurality of closely spaced incising discs, heating said discs to enable them to cleanly and sharply penetrate said surface, rotating said incising roller in engagement with said surface to cause said incising disc to penetrate said surface, and thereafter applying a sealer to seal said surface and the walls of the incisions created by the incising discs.

4. The process of treating a surface to create a desired pattern, consisting of providing a roller made up of a multiplicity of steel discs having peripheral cutting edges for cutting through said surface and for imparting to the treated surface cuts or incisions therethrough in predetermined pattern, heating said cutting edges to a degree of heat necessary to enable them to cleanly and sharply penetrate said surface, and thereafter rotating said roller in engagement with said surface to cause said cutting edges to penetrate said surface without scorching or burning same.

5. The process of creating patterns or designs in the surface of wood and similarly used products, consisting in providing a multiplicity of closely spaced serrated cutting edges for producing a multitude of cuts or incisions beneath said surface in predetermined pattern, heating said cutting edges to a degree of heat necessary to enable them to cleanly and sharply penetrate said surface, and thereafter applying said cutting edges to said surface to cause them to penetrate said surface without scorching or burning same.

6. The process of treating a surface to create a desired pattern, consisting of providing a roller made up of a multiplicity of steel discs having peripheral cutting edges for cutting through said surface and for imparting to the treated surface cuts or incisions therethrough in predetermined pattern, heating said peripheral cutting edges to a temperature of from 500 to 700 F. to enable them to cleanly and sharply penetrate said surface, and thereafter rotating said roller in engagement with said surface to cause said cutting edges to penetrate said surface without scoring or burning same.

SAM MAURER. 

